Fae Johnstone

Fae Johnstone is Executive Director and Co-Owner of Wisdom2Action (W2A) and based on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin territory in Ottawa, Ontario. She is an experienced community engagement expert, diversity and inclusion consultant, and project manager. Over her past two years working with W2A, Fae has led local, provincial, and national initiatives focused on 2SLGBTQ+ community health and wellness, youth mental health, meaningful community engagement, and gender-based violence.

Fae is currently a member of both the Champlain Regional Planning Table for Trans and Gender Diverse Health and the Ontario Youth Suicide Prevention Leadership Committee. She has previously served on the board of directors for LGBT Youth Line and the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity. She has also held roles on the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health’s Strategic Advisory Council. As a dedicated community activist, she was the 2019 recipient of the LGBT Youth Line Trans Activism award.

Prior to joining the team at W2A, Fae worked as an independent consultant focused on 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion, sexual health and rights, trans inclusion, and gender-based violence. During that time, she established herself as a recognized expert in these fields, through providing training to thousands of community, health, and social service providers across Canada.

Fae has a background in the Ontario child and youth mental health system, where she worked with the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health to build the youth engagement capacity of youth mental health organizations. During this time, she also coordinated Dare 2 Dream, a provincial youth-led mental health micro-grant program in Ontario that supported dozens of projects addressing mental health issues in local communities.

Fae previously worked for the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity where she coordinated community and public relations, led fundraising efforts, supported provincial and federal advocacy initiatives focused on 2SLGBTQ+ rights and policies, and coordinated youth leadership programming.

Fae is an established writer and regularly contributes to Xtra Magazine, Canada’s largest and oldest 2SLGBTQ+ publication, where her writing focuses on 2SLGBTQ+ politics and policies in Canada. She has also been published in the Ottawa Citizen, National Observer, Toronto Star, and Huffington Post.